Professor Atari is designing a study to determine if playing video games that require mental rotation of visual images fosters success on spatial reasoning tests. What is the best method of inferring cause and effect?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The best method of inferring cause and effect is a randomized controlled trial. In this case, randomly choosing half of the children to play video games and half to play no video games would allow for comparison of the two groups and determine if playing video games that require mental rotation of visual images fosters success on spatial reasoning tests. This eliminates the possibility of other variables that might affect the results (such as prior experience with video games, motivation, or natural ability) and establishes a cause-and-effect relationship between playing video games and spatial reasoning performance.

Professor Atari Is Designing a Study to Determine If Playing